Chelsea 1-0 Fenerbahce (agg: 2-2)

3 min: With just three minutes on the clock, Michael Ballack turns the game around for Chelsea, who had a free-kick wide on the right. The ball was swung in to the penalty area, where the German flicked a near-post header home with consummate ease.

1 min: And we're off, moments after the camera had panned on to Petr Cech in the crowd. He's obviously got a wound on the right-hand side of his mouth, but he looks remarkably chipper for a man who got 50 stitches in his gob yesterday.

Pre-match niceties

Click-clack! Click-clack! Click-clack! The teams emerge from their dressing rooms, the players fiddle around with the laces on their shorts and then march purposefully out the tunnel and on to the pitch. Both teams, along with the four match officials, line up on the edge of the center-circle to observe a minute's silence for a Dutch Uefa official who died at the weekend. Chelsea line up in their usual home kit of blue shirts and shorts with white socks tonight, while Fenerbahce play in white shirts with yellow stripes, white shorts and black socks.

Pre-match emails

"Traffic in this normally bustling city is quiet now," writes Steve in Istanbul (he could be in Norwich for all I know, but hey - if it helps build atmosphere I'm wholeheartedly in favor of it). "There is a hush in the air. The inhabitants of Istanbul are poised to watch the continuation of the crushing of Chelsea that began in the 60th minute last week. Settle back and enjoy the massacre!"

"Yes Barry, I am reduced to this," writes Paul Kanerek, in an obvious attempt to butter me up. "Sitting at my desk in sunny Southern California, refreshing my Guardian page constantly, so that I can see what horrendously awful concoction of a line-up, Skeletor Grant has created in his lab today. I wonder how Drogba will do at right full-back?"

A craven plea

Apparently we're running a bit low on entries for our Ashley Cole gallery, so if you fancy winning yourself a free £100 bet with Blue Square, why not flex what passes for your imagination and send an entry in to the usual address (please try to keep them vaguely clean, as we have to run them past the lawyers before they go up). On the subject of bets, my sheckles are on Fenerbahce to qualify from this tie and Liverpool and Arsenal to serve up more than two goals.

Team news

What with Petr Cech having received 50 stitches to a lip injury after having his mouth-hole accidentally enlarged by Tal Ben-Haim's boot in training yesterday, Carlo Cudicini continues in goal for a Chelsea team that shows no real surprise selections for the second leg of this Champions League quarter-final against Fenerbahce. The only change from the team that started last week is the inclusion of Salomon Kalou at Florent Malouda's expense.

Interestingly, Fenerbahce manager Zico has chosen the attacking players who eviscerated the Chelsea defence from the 60th minute onwards last week, with both Colin Kazim-Richards and Semih Senturk - who began the first leg on the bench - starting this evening. Mateja Kezman, who contributed bugger all last week, then threw a hissy-fit upon being substituted during Fenerbahce's 2-1 Turkish league win against Kayserispor at the weekend, is a substitute tonight.

The teams

Chelsea: Cudicini, Essien, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele, Lampard, Joe Cole, Drogba, Kalou.Subs: Hilario, Shevchenko, Obi, Malouda, Alex, Belletti, Anelka.

Fenerbahce: Demirel, Gonul, Lugano, Edu Dracena, Wederson, Maldonado, Aurelio, Kazim-Richards, Deivid, Alex, Senturk. Subs:
Kulbilge, Cakmak, Kezman, Bilgin, Turaci, Sahin, Boral.

Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

Previously in Fenerbahce v Chelsea ...

Here's how it all went down last week.